Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin devoted almost his entire 2014 State of the State address to the heroin crisis facing his state. Since 2000, there has been a 770% increase in the use of opiates and a doubling of overdose deaths from the previous year, reflecting the nationwide surge in opiate use.
Gov.Shumlin recognizes that we can not arrest our way out of this crisis and that to make any headway in finding a solution we must reframe the issue of addiction to be understood a s”public health crisis.”
The following video segment is from a PBS interview after the State of the State address. It includes a discussion with Huffington Post’s Washington Bureau Chief and Still Pond, Kent County native, Ryan Grim, author of This is Your country on Drugs.
Grim, a featured author at the 2012 Chestertown Book Festival will be returning to Chestertown for the festival’s sixth year and will be speaking at the Bookplate on September 19. More information about the Festival may be found here.
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